2024 - In Landerneau, an exhibition reveals the many faces of Henri Cartier-Bresson

300 black and white photos by the French photographer are on display until January 5, 2025 at the Hélène and Michel-Edouard Leclerc cultural space.

France Télévisions – Culture Editorial

Published on 06/16/2024 11:50

Reading time: 2 min

Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the Hélène and Michel Leclerc Cultural Fund in Landerneau (Finistère). (PHOTOPQR/THE TELEGRAM/MAXPPP)

There is not just one, but several Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004). It is from this observation that the Hélène and Édouard Leclerc Fund for Culture of Landerneau (Finistère) chose to build its new exhibition.

For this first retrospective of the artist in Brittany, the curators brought together nearly 300 photos. A committed journey to discover until January 5, 2025.

Henri Cartier Bresson exhibition in Landernau
at the E. Leclerc Culture space
(France 3 Bretagne: S. Ben Cherifa / R. Massini / E. Kermarrec / J. Abgrall)

Founder of the prestigious Magnum agency in 1947, the name of Henri Cartier-Bresson is synonymous with photojournalism. From the influence of surrealism to his travels in Africa, Italy and Mexico, he became involved in politics, with the communists, to block the rise of fascism in Europe at the end of the 1930s. “Henri Cartier-Bresson is the world-famous photographer. He is a witness to 70 years of society, of what is happening in France and internationally, and he is also an endearing personality. that we don’t know”, says Michel-Edouard Leclerc.

“The camera is for me a sketchbook, the instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the moment which, in visual terms, questions and decides at the same time. To ‘signify’ the world , you have to feel involved in what you see through the viewfinder”, said Cartier-Bresson about his approach to photography.

The one who was nicknamed “the eye of the century” looked at the world with always the same curiosity and the same demand for the framework. “He is known for having produced famous images like the person jumping over a puddle behind the Saint-Lazare station, in Spain or Italy and then we added lesser known images,” explains Clément Chéroux, curator of the exhibition.

From the geometric Paris of the post-war period to the Cuba of the 1960s, Cartier-Bresson has experienced all the upheavals of the 20th century, always capturing the decisive moment. Part of the exhibition points to the beginnings of consumer society where photography illustrates contradictions and frustrations.

Alongside the famous photos, the route is punctuated with numerous portraits of the photographer at work. Although he was very discreet, many professionals or amateurs who occasionally encountered him photographed him, most often against his will.

These different portraits allow us to discover the different faces of the artist at different periods of his life. “It was about embodying the photographer by showing that the young man close to the surrealist group in the 1930s was not the same as the one who photographed May 68 almost 40 years later,” further details Clément Chéroux.

Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the Hélène and Edouard Leclerc Culture Fund in Landerneau until January 5, 2025.

Hours: open every day from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Prices: 10 and 7€